A Sorting to Remember
by MysteryMadness
Summary: When a group of four mysterious people walk into the Great Hall along with the next batch of first-years, no Hogwarts resident - student or teacher - was expecting the reaction they would have with the Sorting Hat. HPxDGM. One-shot-turned-multi-chapter. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

A Sorting to Remember

Harry looked around the Great Hall. It was his fifth year at Hogwarts, and he was glad to actually see a sorting ceremony again. Even though he had been at the school for five years, he had only seen 2 ceremonies including his own.

Therefore, he was not quite sure whether it was normal for there to be rather loud muttering coming from the other side of the large oak doors that separated the school from the soon-to-be-sorted first years. The words were muffled and incoherent, but they were clearly being said in anger. Even Dumbledore, standing behind his owl-lectern, seemed to be looking towards the door with a perplexed expression. The noise was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire Great Hall, after all.

Finally, the doors opened and in streamed the next batch of first years. They looked pale, and some seemed to be visibly shaking – Harry thought they were shaking a little _too_ much for it just to be nerves, surely? When he had been sorted, nearly the entire school sat ogling at the Boy Who Lived and he could feel a tangible pressure over the result of which house he would be placed in. _That_ he decided _deserved nerves. _

However, it was then that Harry noticed something he was sure had _never_ happened in a Sorting Ceremony, despite having missed so many of them himself. He immediately worked out that this was most likely the reason for the first-years' discomfort.

Behind the group of tiny first years walked four considerably taller people. They looked to range between maybe fifteen and twenty years old? Though Harry couldn't be sure. But what stood out about them most were their appearances.

One was a pretty girl that looked to be around Harry's age. She had black-green hair that flowed to her shoulders, vivid purples eyes and a kind expression as she walked directly behind the first years. She didn't seem at all nervous, despite the incredulous looks she was receiving as she walked pass.

Another was a lanky red-headed male that looked to be around nineteen in Harry's opinion. What he was doing at a school that only accommodated for those up until seventeen, Harry had no idea. Although, what _any_ of them were doing here at all was also unknown. The man had an eye patch that covered his right eye and his face held the qualities of a child's – all lit up in a bright curiosity at the scene around him, particularly, Harry noticed, the floating candles and clear skies that were reflected on the ceiling.

There was also a male with long, dark hair. His mouth was in a tight line that Harry figured to be annoyance of some kind, and he seemed to move in a way that gave off an aura that screamed 'get the hell away from me if you want to live.' He was interesting, but in a dangerous way.

However, it was the last male in the line, who looked to be the youngest of the group, that seemed to be gaining the most attention. He had white – and Harry meant _white_ hair. The kind that people could spend hundreds of dollars at a hairdresser on, and still wouldn't be able to get the same shade. Though this wasn't the oddest thing about him. He also had a bright red scar that ran down the length of the left side of his face. Harry could see an upside down star shape that poked out from under the boy's fringe. Harry noticed that the boy was clearly uncomfortable with the attention he was getting from the student body, but he seemed to deal with it with an air of someone who had ignored other's stares for a very long time. Harry couldn't help but be reminded of himself when he saw this. Harry also couldn't help but notice that the white-haired boy and the darkhaired one seemed to occasionally glance at each other with clear animosity in their eyes. As the group passed where Harry was sitting, he distinctively heard the dark haired one utter something along the lines of 'che' right after the two had exchanged one of these looks.

Once they had reached the front of the hall, the first years were slowly sorted one-by-one. Harry saw a twinkle in the headmasters eyes, as he sat with his chin rested on folded hands. And eventually, it was time for the mysterious group to be called up.

* * *

Allen stood at the back of the group as he watched the first-years head to the three-legged stool and sit down for a few moments, before a _hat_ screamed some nonsensical word out and the child hopped off to sit at a particular table.

Frankly put, he had no idea what he was doing here. He, along with the rest of his comrades, had been called into Komui's office only a few _hours_ earlier. Their Chief had said something about a top secret mission that was incredibly urgent. Though the only phrase Allen had really listened to was _'An inconceivable amount of akuma in the area.' _And with that, the four had made a quick trip through the ark to a nearby town (that Allen had travelled to previously, of course) where a group of strange people showed up to 'escort' them to a place called Hogwarts. Allen could still remember how one of the group grabbed a tight hold of his arm, followed by the feeling of being squeezed through some kind of tight tunnel, then seeing that he was standing before giant iron-wrought gates, a castle laying behind it.

And this had led to his comrades and himself to having to march through a very large crowd of very curious teenagers. It didn't help that he was in a bad mood from having a spat with Kanda right outside the doors to the hall, of all places. It was his fault, obviously, for mentioning how Allen didn't even stand out from the crowd of eleven-year-olds.

When they got back, Komui would pay for this.

Throughout the entire march, Allen had had to put all his concentration into not letting his eye activate. At this point, he wasn't sure if there were any akuma in the crowd of school children, but in a crowd this large, Allen figured it was a very high probability. At least it gave him a chance to practice controlling the activation of his eye, which he had only recently gotten the hang of through extensive meditation programs.

And now he watched as an elderly woman cleared her throat and said with an authoritative voice, "Kanda, Yuu."

Kanda scowled at the fact the woman had dared use his first name, and walked stiffly up to the stool. The woman made to put the hat on Kanda's head when the swordsman held out a hand and growled, "Not a chance in hell, Lady."

Her response was incredible. It was like Allen was looking at a female version of Kanda's own Glare of Death, and it was directed at Kanda himself. Allen was sure Kanda wouldn't have backed down, but it did create a second of confusion, and that was enough for the woman to roughly shove the old mangy hat onto the samurai's head, smiling in a very self-satisfied way when her mission was accomplished.

The hat hummed to itself for a while before finally speaking out loud.

"Well. No other place for you, is there? You embody this house through-and-through. GRYFFINDOR!"

Kanda stood, clearly annoyed, and followed the loud sound of cheering that was issuing from one of the tables.

"Lavi…" The woman trailed off somewhat put-out by the lack of surname. The rest of the hall seemed to murmur in response to this as well.

Lavi, however, took it in his stride and walked confidently up to the stool, taking the hat from the woman himself and popping it straight onto his head.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat roared, and Lavi pulled off the hat to reveal an almost _pained_ expression. The reason for this was unknown to Allen, but he knew that something had to be wrong with the bookman apprentice. Allen then saw how Lavi blatantly ignored the loudest cheering table and instead went to seat himself next to Kanda, that expression still haunting his features.

"Lee, Lenalee."

Lenalee had clearly also seen Lavi's worrying expression, so she walked up to the stool with a wary face, as if she was bracing herself for the worst.

"GRYFFINDOR!" bellowed the hat, and Allen saw Lenalee take of the hat and it seemed as though she was trying to fight back tears. From the buzzing in the hall, Allen could tell that the other students seemed to be wondering about the exorcists' strange reaction to the sorting. He noticed that even a silver-bearded man perched upon a throne-like chair wore a slightly concerned expression.

"Walker, Allen." The woman said his name almost hesitantly, apparently also having had noticed something was wrong.

Allen grit his teeth and marched up to take the hat in his hands before placing it on his head himself. He then felt an unpleasant probing feeling in the deepest regions of his mind.

_Oh no, there's another one of you is there? _Allen thought the hat seemed rather weary as it all but sighed as it spoke, _Well, I guess everyone needs to be sorted, no matter what kind of lives they've had before now. Let's take a look, then, shall we? _

Allen waited, his hands clenched into fists by his sides. He did not like this feeling. He didn't like it at all.

_What is this? What IS this? There's two minds in here? _Allen was displeased that the hat seemed to be able to see that particular feature of himself, _Well, that's not entirely new to me. Not exactly common though… but still. I guess I'll just have to look into your past to sort you – it's what I had to do to your friends anyway. _

A few moments of silence and then

"NOOOO!"

Allen flinched violently at the scream of the hat. It was shouting at the top of its lungs out loud to the rest of the hall.

"NEVER IN MY YEARS HAVE I SEEN…. NOOOOOO… I CANNOT LOOK INTO THIS MIND ANY LONGER…. PLEASE…. RELEASE ME!"

Allen quickly picked the hat up from his own head and it abruptly stopped its deafening screams. He glanced around at the dumbstruck students around him, noticing that they looked shocked and some even looked nauseated. He then looked behind him at the teachers, who held equally shocked expressions.

He then held the hat out to the woman who had passed it to him.

"Er… I think I broke it…"

* * *

**Hey guys. A break from my other fic I'm updating, but this idea would NOT leave me alone. At this stage, I'm only publishing this as a one-shot, but by the end of writing this, I was getting that tingly feeling that was telling me, 'hang on, this could actually turn into something a fair bit longer…' **

**So what do you guys think? Keep it a oneshot? Or maybe build on from it…? I don't know…**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Aftermath

The murmuring had not stopped.

It had been a full five minutes.

Finally, someone seemed to come to their senses. "Mr Walker," the silver-bearded man said with a kind voice, that seemed somewhat strangled at this moment, "It seems we are having some… technical difficulties… at this moment. So if you'd perhaps like to take a seat next to your friends."

Allen nodded and sat himself down next to Lavi on the other side of Kanda and Lenalee, all of whom looked puzzled, but not overly upset or offended like some of the black-clad teenagers seemed to be.

"Hey, Allen, you ok?" Lavi asked. Allen noticed that the pain from Lavi's face had not quite ebbed away yet.

"Mmm? Yeah. It didn't really get to look into my memories all that much before it… uh…"

"Che. Baka Moyashi. Been here ten minutes and already breaking stuff."

Allen puffed his cheeks out in annoyance and turned his head away, his arms crossed, "It's not my fault, it just _freaked out_ all of a sudden."

A red-headed man sitting next to Lenalee leaned over and whispered, "Yeah, well, the thing that 'freaked out' happens to be an ancient magical relic that's hundreds of years old."

"Yeah," continued another red-head beside the first that could only be his twin brother, "It's been doing this job for ages, then you come along."

Allen noticed that these two weren't looking at him in fright like many of the others were, but rather with a sense of curiosity. Somewhat like people who quite liked disruption and would like to learn from those that caused it.

"Er," Allen started, quite at a loss of what exactly to say to the eager twins, but he could feel the beginnings of guilt starting to form somewhere in the regions of his stomach, "I didn't realise it was that old or that important. To be honest I don't understand much of anything that's happening around here. Wait..." for Allen had just picked up on a crucial element of the conversation, "Did you just say 'magic?'"

"Uh, well, yeah I did. I'm George Weasley, by the way."

"And I'm Fred Weasley. Pleasure to meet you."

After uttering some further pleasantries to the twins, Allen turned back to his fellow exorcists. "Did you hear them say 'magic' as well?"

"Yes, I did," Lenalee whispered, trying to keep her voice low in response to the crowd of curious onlookers, "Maybe there's innocence here disguised as a magical item of some sort? It's not the first time magic has been blamed for Innocence."

However, Lenalee's hypothesis was thoroughly disputed when the silver-bearded man, announcing himself as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, started to speak to the crowd.

When he welcomed them all back to 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,' followed by the sudden appearance of mountains of food on the golden platters before them.

Allen and the rest of the exorcists paled.

"_A school for magic? Are you serious?" _Allen hissed to the others, ignoring the confused gazes of their onlookers.

"Well. I guess the idea is possible," Of course it was Lavi to answer, always the knowledgeable one, "I remember reading about a theory in one of Gramps old books. It said that it was possible that a few thousand years ago, humans started to evolve in four different ways. One branch of this evolution came to possess powers that could 'banish tortured souls from the Earth,' this was believed to be the evolution of Exorcists or Innocence Accommodators. The second branch, as we have all come to realise by now, evolved into a kind of superhuman race, with 'bonds that could never be severed and wearing a crown of thorns that cut into their ashen skin,' which we understand to be in reference to the Noah. The third branch were 'civilians who lost their power due to a longing for scientific knowledge,' this would be your average human, with no powers. But the last branch were told to be 'people who found a way to direct their powers through an object so their bodies would not be harmed and their sanity could be maintained.' I'm guessing that these people," Lavi gestured to the crowd around them, "are the end result of that evolutionary branch, whereas we are the result of the first one. Although we've never had any evidence for such a branch existing, by directing their powers, they don't have to take as much toll on their bodies, like parasite-types do – as back in those days it's understood that there were almost only parasite-type exorcists in existence, and its believed to be the oldest form of Innocence there is. As for the 'losing sanity' part, well… You've seen how the Noah are. They have power and something akin to immortality, however, their bloodlust can overwhelm their minds and they can lose control."

Allen and Lenalee looked at Lavi with wide eyes, taking in the information. Kanda's mouth tightened somewhat, telling Allen that he too was taken-aback by these developments.

"So are you telling me that these, these… _wizards_… are like cousins or something to the exorcists?" Lenalee questioned, her eyes wide as saucers.

Lavi laughed and ruffled his hair with his hand, "I guess you could say that, yes. Though of course, it's still just speculation. Though seeing as we are currently sitting in the dining hall of a school that seems to cater explicitly to this fourth branch, I'd have to say that the probability of it being true has increased quite a bit."

The exorcists sat in silence as they all processed this in their own ways. Lavi sat with his chin resting on his folded hands, his eye closed, clearly thinking through every scrap of information he had ever seen or heard on this fourth branch. Lenalee sat with her hands in her lap, her brow furrowed, contemplating. Kanda had his arms crossed, his eyebrow occasionally twitching as he could tell that somehow, this was going to cause _trouble_. Allen, on the other hand, quelled his muddled thoughts by eating anything and everything within arm's reach, swallowing whole pizzas in one go.

* * *

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat a few people down from the mysterious four people who had just arrived. At the moment, Hermione was paling at the sight of the white-haired boy consuming what seemed to be at least twice his own body weight.

"So… are we just supposed to just act fine with the fact that the kid psychologically tortured the Sorting Hat, who is a _hat_, and really shouldn't be able to be psychologically tormented in the first place?" Ron was staring suspiciously at the strangers as he took a chicken leg from the platter and tore his teeth into it, never breaking his narrowed eyes away from the newcomers.

"Well, Dumbledore seems ok with it…" Hermione trailed off, though Harry could tell she wasn't convinced of what she was saying.

"'Ok with it?' 'Ok with it?' Hermione, Dumbledore sounded all choked up when he spoke after it happened. Have you _ever_ heard him like that?" To which Hermione looked down and shook her head slowly.

"And have _you_?" The question was now being directed to Harry, who thought it through before answering.

"Not that I can remember, I mean, even when he was questioning me about whether or not I put my name in the Goblet of Fire, he still remained dead calm******"

"Exactly," Ron spat out triumphantly, as if that answered all of their questions, "They're not to be trusted. I mean, come on, that guy has a _sword_." Ron jerked his thumb towards Kanda.

The dark-haired man turned towards Ron and gave him one of his best Glares of Death, effectively shutting the Weasley up.

"I think it has something to do with their pasts…" Hermione ventured, "At least, that's what I gather from what I can hear of their conversation."

Harry thought this over. Could the group's memories really be so bad that the Sorting Hat couldn't handle it. The same hat had sorted Voldemort, after all.

Once the food on the platters had vanished, Dumbledore stood up, looking much more composed. He properly welcomed everyone back and went through the usual procedures – don't go into the forrest and such – and then,

"I'd also like to welcome our four new guests that will be staying here and attending classes for an extended period of time. I'm sure you've seen them being sorted-"

"Who could _forget_ them being sorted," Ginny whispered from somewhere down the Gryffindor table.

"-and while they're here, they'll be taking on some extra duties around the Castle, which is the reason why they're here. Their names are Allen Walker, Kanda Yuu, Lenalee Lee, and Lavi. Please welcome them as your own."

"Not bloody likely," Ron muttered.

"I'd also like to introduce our new Defence Against the Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. In addition to this, I'd like to inform you all on a new class that is being offered this year with a teacher that is considered a master in the field. This class will be known as 'Object Bewitchment,' and I'm afraid the teacher of this subject doesn't seem to have arrived yet, but – "

With that, the doors to the Great Hall burst open to reveal a tall man with long messy red hair. His face was half-covered by a mask of some sorts and he wore a crooked grin on his face.

Dumbledore merely smiled and continued, despite the avid murmurs of the student body. "And here he is now. Professor Cross, who joins us today from –"

"MASTER?"

It was the white haired boy, Allen, and he seemed to be sinking further and further into a state of depression as he took in the form of the tall man.

"Idiot Apprentice! Don't ruin my dramatic entrance!"

"Wha- bu-" Allen spluttered incoherently, pointing a trembling finger at the man.

At the front of the room, Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly. It seemed to Harry that he had interrupted a small woman clad in pink that looked to be in the middle of the action of standing up.

"Well. That about marks the conclusion to the announcements for this evening. I wish you all a good night's rest, ready to use your brains fully in classes tomorrow."

Thus concluded the most disjointed and confusing Welcoming Feast Hogwarts had ever seen.

_****** - a not-so-subtle dig at the way the movie portrayed Dumbledore asking Harry if he put his name in the Cup._

* * *

**Well. It's back, by popular demand!**

**I really want to thank everyone that reviewed the first chapter of this story, you all made me really happy. As a writer, compliments on my writing are so nice to receive and sometimes it's the inspiration that entices you to get writing again. And criticism is also important for improvement, so don't hold back (I understand I may regret saying that…) **

**I realise that a Fic name change should probably be in order, seeing as it's only the first chapter that actually has the sorting. But it's the name you all know now, right? And besides, no matter what happens in the rest of the fic, it's still a **_**sorting to remember**_**. So I think I'll just keep the old name. **

**I'm actually also updating another multi-chapter fic at the same time as this one, so updates may not be all that regular. But rest assured, there will be updates. **

**But for those of you who happen to read both of my fics, which one would you rather be updated more regularly? There's only so much I can handle in addition to uni and real-life commitments (which are somewhat boring, but necessary nonetheless).**

**Again, thanks so much guys!**


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